Catherine Kilelu
The African Dairy Conference held in Kampala Uganda from 11-15th September 2023 was a successful showcase of the steady progress and transformation of the sector in the region. The conference attracted over 700 diverse participants from 25 countries across the globe, and 150 farmer groups, public, private, and non-state actors exhibiting. The gathering was held after a brief hiatus following COVID-19 that disrupted plans to have the meeting in 2020.
Aptly, Uganda led by the Dairy Development Authority in collaboration with various local and international partners sponsored and hosted the well-organized meeting and exhibition. The Ugandan Dairy Industry is a testament of how concerted efforts by farmers, small, medium, and large processors, input and service suppliers, government agencies can take a country from being a net milk and dairy products importer to an annual production of 3 .4 billion liters to becoming a major exporter in about 20 years.
The success story of Uganda dairy sector is anchored in industry’s commitment to production of quality and safe products supported by an enabling regulatory environment. Although still wrought in challenges, Uganda is inspiring other African countries who have recognize the strategic importance of the dairy sector in contributing to the nutrition agenda, and sustainable and inclusive development. These lessons are also apt for Kenya, whose dairy industry is fairly developed, but is ceding ground to Uganda who are now a key milk and dairy products supplier in the regional market and beyond.
The theme “Dairy more than milk” encapsulated multidimensional aspects and efforts of different stakeholders to shape the direction of toward an inclusive, sustainable, and competitive smallholder-dominated dairy sector and industry in the region. While big strides have been made to move dairy development forward, there is still a long way to go. According to data by the International Dairy Federation (IDF), while Africa hosts 60% of the global dairy herd, the region contributes only 5% of total milk production. Additionally, the region lags in per capita consumption of milk and dairy products, which a key source of nutrition.
The human stories of the transformative potential of investing in an inclusive dairy sector development agenda was highlighted by the keynote speaker, Moses Nyabila of ABi Ltd. The conference sessions covered a range of topical issues from the global and regional status of the industry, trade, innovations in production including in breeding, diagnostics, quality and safety of milk, green technology, circularity and climate smart dairy, and human nutrition. There are 14 countries, mainly in East and Southern Africa that are the main milk producers in the region and are well positioned to be suppliers of milk and dairy products to the other countries if the Africa free trade Area is well organized and actualized.
A running theme at the conference was on sustainability and dairy development. The perspective on sustainability takes a triple P (People, Planet, and Profits) approach, and if not well considered is a major threat to the industry globally and regionally. It was therefore encouraging to see many initiatives and investments showcased in the region that are contributing to a sustainable dairy sector agenda in the region.
We presented preliminary results from the VALORISE project that is being implemented in Kenya by a consortium of partners including Rosklide University, Egerton University, ACTS, Denmark Alliance of Biodiversity and CIAT, the East and Southern Africa Dairy Association (ESADA) and Arla Foods. The project focuses on the processing node of the industry and explores opportunities for integrating circular bioeconomy principles through reducing waste and reuse of side streams linked to milk and dairy products processing. The study shows that dairy processing is changing both in terms of the volumes and the diversity of products in the market. As processing grows, so does the challenges related to sustainability linked to management of waste/side streams, and growing demand for water and energy. It emerged that circular principles are being explored in the sector in many ways through energy options including manure management, water management and packaging.
Moving toward a sustainable, inclusive dairy sector development agenda is taking the center stage in the region, joining in with other in efforts such Pathways to Dairy Net Zero. The imperative is for all stakeholders including public, private, non-state actors, academics, and researchers to work collaboratively to maximize on opportunities and minimize the challenges facing the sector. Thus, the conference theme was timely- African Dairy More than Just Milk! With that, participants got a token of appreciation by the generous Uganda hosts.